A Day at the Races (1937) | |
The Story (continued)
The film's most classic scene is the next one - the "Tootsie-Frootsie" Ice Cream/Code Book scene. Tony poses as an ice-cream vendor outside the race track - he is actually a con artist selling racing tip books on horses. He knows that in the next race, he can win with 10-1 odds with a bet on Sun-Up, but he needs the cash. So he sets up the scam as gullible victim Dr. Hackenbush arrives at the race track to bet two dollars on Sun-Up.
Hackenbush is advised by Tony to bet on Rosie, a 40-1 shot. At the betting window, Hackenbush bets two dollars on Rosie, but the bookie tells him the race is already over - Sun-Up the winner. Hackenbush realizes he has been taken. He thinks for a moment, then dumps the books back in the cart and takes the scammer's place waiting for a victim, crying: "Get your Tootsie-Frootsie. Nice ice cream. Nice Tootsie-Frootsie ice cream." Morgan's plan is to convert the deteriorating sanitarium into a gambling casino next to his hotel and racetrack. His accomplice, Whitmore, is the sanitarium's financial officer, who has already begun to destroy the internal financial structure of the hospital. Whitmore is upset by the newly appointed head, and calls the Florida Medical Board to check up on Dr. Hackenbush's professional credentials in a marvelous scene of impersonation. Hackenbush intercepts the call in the next-door office, and impersonates the receptionists at both ends of the call and a half-deaf "Colonel Hawkins" of the medical board. He creates the sound effects of a hurricane with a desk fan and a rustling piece of paper and says:
But when Whitmore shouts into the phone, Hackenbush buzzes him on the intercom and tells him to keep his voice down to avoid annoying the patients. Then when Whitmore returns to the phone, he thinks he has missed essential bits of information:
Dr. Hackenbush is wheeled into his office in a wheelchair where he instructs the attendant: "Pick me up at 5." His secretary asks for an 'OK.'
One of the doctors believes Mrs. Upjohn is absolutely healthy:
Then he dismisses them, so that he can secretly read the horse race news. Another classic sequence of routines involves the two medical examinations, first for Stuffy (later for Mrs. Upjohn). As practice for his diagnosis of Mrs. Upjohn, Hackenbush first examines Stuffy (as he fiddles on a flute). He takes Stuffy's pulse, while speaking one of comedy's most famous one-liners:
Stuffy eats the thermometer like a stick of candy when it is put in his mouth. Hackenbush jokes: "Your temperature certainly went down fast." Stuffy tries to wash it down with a drink from a medicine bottle in the cabinet labeled POISON. Hackenbush warns: "Hey, don't drink that poison. That's four dollars an ounce." To test his reflexes, Hackenbush gets down on hands and knees. Immediately, Stuffy gets on his back to ride him. Examining him further, Hackenbush finds his patient staring back, and he says: "Don't look at me! What do you think I am? A peep show?" Hackenbush finally delivers his diagnosis:
But Hackenbush has his auriscope mirror reversed on his forehead and has really been examining himself. Hackenbush dances and explains it away:
The medical exam continues as Hackenbush asks him to say "Ah," but doesn't hear anything. He then presses Stuffy's chest. Out pops an inflating balloon from Stuffy's mouth. Hackenbush wonders: "If that's his adam's apple, he's got yellow fever." Tony thinks: "He's got in-grown balloons." When the balloon pops out again, Hackenbush grabs his neck to keep it inflated. Tony says: "I think he's a Ubangi." Hackenbush puns: "Well, I'll get the hammer and u-bang-i that right off." When Stuffy's head falls forward, it appears the balloon has sprouted curly red hair. Hackenbush notes: "Say, it's grown considerably hasn't it, eh? What's that hairy fungus all over it?" Tony discovers that Hackenbush is a horse doctor, not a human doctor. He first thinks he should tell Judy, but then realizes Hackenbush is there to save the hospital with Mrs. Upjohn's financial support. While they talk, Stuffy injects Hackenbush's leg with novocaine from a large hypodermic needle. Just as Hackenbush admits: "I haven't got a leg to stand on," he stands on his unsupportive, stiff leg, falling to the floor. As he exits the room, walking awkwardly with one leg wrapped around the other one, Tony and Stuffy loyally imitate and follow him. |